Updated: Friday, 2:07 p.m. with latest KDHE numbers and meeting clarification
Cowley County commissioners voted 3-0 Friday morning during a short special meeting to opt out of a statewide order to wear masks in public places.
Gov. Laura Kelly announced this week she’d sign an executive order to go in effect today to mandate face masks for all public places in an effort to lessen the spread of COVID-19.
Commissioners met remotely via Zoom. Commissioners Wayne Wilt and Bob Voegele were at the Cowley County courthouse. Commissioner Alan Groom participated via Zoom.
All three commissioners said they received several emails and calls this week about the order and that a majority urged the county to defy the order.
“If you want to wear a mask, I highly recommend it, if it helps you feel safe,” Commissioner Alan Groom said.
But as far as requiring masks to be worn, Groom said he didn’t feel that was the right thing to do in America.
“In the United States of America there is no need to do something like that,” he said. “You’ve earned the right as an American.”
Commissioner Wayne Wilt said a constituent who already wears a mask urged him to vote for opting out.
Commissioner Bob Voegele echoed Wilt and Groom.
Cowley County Public Health Officer Thomas Langer was a part of the Zoom meeting, but did not speak. On June 26, Langer said in a press release from the health department there had been some Cowley County citizens who tested positive for COVID-19 but ignored quarantine orders.
Langer said those residents went out into the community anyway and shopped at local stores, checked out garage sales and went to casinos, but Langer was not called on by commissioners Friday morning regarding masks or anything else.
According to the Associated Press, Sedgwick County commissioners voted 3-2 Thursday to strongly recommend that people follow Kelly’s order but not make it a mandate.
The AP said Kelly told legislative leaders that a desire to reopen schools is a key reason for her executive order requiring Kansas residents to wear masks in public and their workplaces.
The governor and Dr. Lee Norman, her health secretary, said Thursday the goal is to increase people’s use of masks to control the novel coronavirus’ spread. Norman told legislative leaders that Kansas could prevent more than 11,500 new coronavirus cases between now and Oct. 1 with a mask mandate.
Kelly’s order doesn’t apply to the Legislature’s meetings or to the courts, but the Kansas Supreme Court on Thursday ordered masks to be worn in judicial proceedings.
Both the Cowley County Fair and Walnut Valley Festival have been canceled due to the virus.
According to the City-Cowley County Health Department website Friday morning, two more cases have been confirmed in the county since Thursday.
Cowley County now totals 73 cases of COVID-19 so far since the pandemic began, with 22 considered currently active and 50 recovered.
An Ark City man who tested positive April 1 died a week later and remains the only death in the county connected to the virus.
So far, 1,650 people have been tested in the county since a national emergency proclamation was issued by the White House on March 13.
Cowley County has a population of 34,908 people as of July 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Kansas has now surpassed 15,000 cases, according to Friday’s report from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
KDHE reports 15,919 cases across the state since March, an increase of nearly 1,000 cases since Wednesday’s report, and 277 deaths — five more since Wednesday.
Hospitalizations in Kansas now total 1,219 so far and 175,642 negative tests have been recorded.
Kay County, Oklahoma, has recorded 106 cases so far and remains at seven deaths. The state of Oklahoma has also surpassed 15,000 cases. Friday the state reported 15,065 cases and 398 deaths.
From Thursday:
Cowley County commissioners will consider a resolution to opt out of the governor’s executive order requiring face masks in all public areas during a special meeting Friday morning.
According to the agenda for Friday morning’s 9 a.m. Zoom meeting, the lone item of business will consider a resolution to “not adopt and to opt out of the Governor’s Executive Order regarding the mandate of face masks in all public areas.”
Monday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced an executive order to mandate face masks for public places that will take effect Friday. However, counties can opt out of the order due to the aftermath of intense partisanship in Topeka at the end of May that saw the legislature attempt to strip Kelly of executive authority during the pandemic.
She vetoed that bill, but has since allowed localities to make final decisions regarding COVID-19 precautions and response.
According to the Associated Press Thursday, Dr. Lee Norman, the top administrator at the state Department of Health and Environment, blamed a recent surge in new confirmed cases on gatherings over the long Memorial Day weekend and the May 26 lifting of statewide restrictions on businesses and gatherings. He said Kansas remains struck in its first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Kansas has had 14,990 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, including 547 new ones since Monday for a 3.8% increase in two days. There were also two new COVID-19 deaths since Monday, raising the state’s overall tally to 272.
Since Kelly lifted statewide restrictions on businesses and public gatherings immediately after Memorial Day, Kansas has had 5,653 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, which amounted to a 61% increase, and 84 deaths, for a 45% jump.
According to the City-Cowley County Health Departmental website Thursday morning, 71 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the county since the pandemic began with 25 considered currently active and 45 recovered.
An Ark City man who tested positive April 1 died a week later and remains the only death in the county connected to the virus.
So far, 1,522 people have been tested in the county since a national emergency proclamation was issued by the White House on March 13.
Cowley County has a population of 34,908 people as of July 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Kay County, Oklahoma, has recorded 104 cases so far and remains at seven deaths. The state of Oklahoma has now recorded 14,539 cases and 395 deaths.
